Some people can not afford the pets from the Pet Store, but can get them from the AH. The issues will be those that post them up for 15,000g plus on the AH cause they spend $50.00 to get a bunch of them and take advantage of the first few hours.

Q: Could I put the Guardian Cub up on the auction house to try to make some gold if I wanted to? While our goal is to offer players alternative ways to add a Pet Store pet to their collection, we’re ok with it if some players choose to use the Guardian Cub as a safe and secure way to try to acquire a little extra in-game gold without turning to third-party gold-selling services. However, please keep in mind that there's never any guarantee that someone will purchase what you put up for sale in the auction house, or how much they'll pay for it. Also, it’s important to note that we take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts. (You can read more about our stance here.) While some players might be able to acquire some extra gold by putting the Guardian Cub in the auction house, that’s preferable to players contributing to the gold-selling “black market” and account theft.

Emphasis mine. I think Blizzard has realized that they've lost the gold selling war and are trying to capitalize on it instead of fighting it. This is hardly as shocking an announcement as it once would have been thanks to the D3 AH. Programs like this have worked out fairly well for games like Eve...maybe someday you'll be able to get game time from gold (a la Eve)?